Thursday, July 03, 2014

The Dwarrowdelf - The great Dwarven city of Khazad Dum

The Fellowship continue on their quest...

Having evaded the attentions of the Watcher in the Water, they are forced into, and thus on through, the Mines of Moria... a four day crossing on foot, to the other side, through this dark and treacherous place...



Passing through the various passageways and corridors, and mine workings they finally come to the Dwarrowdelf, an imposing realm of high ceiling chambers, or mansions and massive supporting pillars...



Onward, ever onward, hoping beyond hope to pass unnoticed by the vile denizens of this subterranean lair...



Nearing the Eastgate, the Fellowship are nearly through this dark place, their luck has held, their passage gone unnoticed, other than being followed by the soft flap of feet behind... Gollum it seems, has picked up their trail...



And then, a shaft of light catches their eye, to the side of their way, shining down upon a stone tomb...




33 comments:

  1. That looks superb. Real sense of scale i.e. BIG!

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    1. Many thanks. Camera perspective helps too, but yeah, they're quite tall - about 35cm each I think, which is quite big when you are only 2.5cm tall! ;-)

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  2. Awe inspiring terrain - some of the best I've ever seen

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  3. Suitably large and impressive mate! The detail on the bases of the columns is superb.

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  4. Wow, impressive detail to the columns there. Well done.

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    1. Thanks Mark, it took a while, about a weeks worth of evenings cutting and gluing, but worth it in the end I think :)

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  5. Suitably cinematic as befits one of the journey books. A very well done Sir! That said I still hate you and your cavernous workroom.

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  6. After being a long time lurker I would like to commend you on your wonderful terrain. The epic scale is really what differentiates it from other peoples stuff and I always look foward to the next update. The detail on the columns is beautiful and your watcher in the sea diorama/battle board also turned out nicely. Finally, your opus magnum the mines of Moria looks already amazing and I can't wait to see the finalised artwork.

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    1. Thank you so much for 'coming out of the woodwork and de-lurking!' ;-)
      Thank you also for your kind words -they do mean a lot. As much as its nice to see you blog hts rise and get a bunch of '+1s', its comments like yours that really feed the soul.
      And then I can of course return the favour being able to check out your own work!
      Thanks again
      Regards
      Scott

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    2. You are welcome. I do feel the same. I always get the feeling LotR gamers like you really take their time and come up with amazing terrain creations. I don't know the rules, but given they are ostensibly scenario focused that might be the reason. Small, contained battle boards instead of highly variable battlefields lent themselves to much more intricate detailing and more believable structures. Having a high quality movie as a reference might also raise the bar a bit. It is also nice to read about the construction process, problems you encounter and then solutions to them. Anyhow, keep up the good work.

      PS: You mention that you straighten warped boards/ elements of your built. How exactly do you accomplish this?

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    3. I think you have hit the nail on the head... the small scenario skirmish, really make the terrain an important part of the game, as much as the figures...
      Glad you find it interesting :-)

      Straightening the MDF I have usually done by cutting 1" wide strips of more MDF and gluing these perpendicular to the warped piece, clamped into place or weighted down until dry. Of this only works for your project if these extra pieces can be hidden, concealed, built into the structure somehow... I have also tried in the past putting a layer of PVA glue on the opposite side of the warp and weighting it down as the glue dried as the PVA shrinks on drying and may pull the sheet back straight again, though its a rather inexact science!

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    4. I knew about the PVA glue on the opposit side, but as you say, the result is never quite perfect. Sounds like a good idea to use stripes of mdf instead. I shall try it with the next warped piece. Maybe I should just use plasticcard from now on :).

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  7. Excellent work, Scott.
    I'm just wondering where you store all those awesome terrain boards...

    Cheers
    Stefan

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    1. Thanks Stefan! Thankfully this isn't a fixed board, the pillars are individual and can be easily stored :-)

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  8. Most impressive! These colomns are really great, thanks for sharing!

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  9. Beautifully cinematic. I like the idea of visual linking posts like this to actual games. Something I have bee thinking about for my Darkest Africa campaign.

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    1. I have long wanted to make some of these pillars, for general Moria gaming use, but it always got put off... Now that I am trying to complete a Fellowship campaign they became a must, yet at this point there is no battle to fight, (yet!), but it was a breathtaking cinematic moment in the movie and I just had to tip my hat to it...

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  10. 4 days, it was only a few minutes in the movie, great work though.

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    1. LOL, yeah, I guess lots of the journey can be skipped, if there's no action en-route! Thanks :-)

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  11. The photography certainly captures the massiveness of the pillars - stunning shots

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